Bison: Definition and Much More from Answers.com
- ️Wed Jul 01 2015
n., pl. bison.
- A bovine mammal (Bison bison) of western North America, having large forequarters, a shaggy mane, and a massive head with short curved horns; a buffalo.
- An animal (B. bonasus) of Europe, similar to but somewhat smaller than the bison; a wisent.
[Latin bisōn, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wisunt.]
The name for two species of the Bovidae in the mammalian order Artiodactyla, found in North America and Europe. The European bison (Bison bonasus) is commonly known as the wisent. The American species (B. bison), shown in the illustration, is often called buffalo but should not be confused with the African buffalo.
North American bison (Bison bison).
The European bison was originally abundant in the forested areas of western Europe during the late Cenozoic Era. The wisent is a browsing, woodland animal which congregates in relatively small herds. It is almost extinct in its natural range and, although a few herds exist, it is known mainly from a few hundred specimens preserved in zoological gardens and zoos.
An intensive effort has been made to preserve the species by breeding and maintaining this animal in captivity.
Although there are differences, the wisent is closely allied to the American species. The wisent has a small head carried in a high position and a short mane, and is more graceful and less massive than the North American species. The hump is less noticeable, the legs are longer, the horns are more slender, and the body is not so shaggy.
Enormous herds of the American bison existed on the Plains area of North America in western Canada and the western United States during the 19th century. It is estimated that there are still about 20,000 bison in Canada and the United States on preserves and national parks. These bovines are massive, with the males attaining a length of 9 ft (2.7 m), a height of 6 ft (1.8 m) at the shoulder, and weight up to 3000 lb (1350 kg). They are herbivorous, and migrated originally when the grass or forage became scarce. The large head is held in a low position, and behind the neck region is a characteristic hump. The forequarters are shaggy with the hair more pronounced in the male than the female. The senses of smell and hearing are well developed, while vision is poor. Both the male and female have horns which are small and set far apart. See also Artiodactyla; Buffalo; Mammalia.
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American bison, or plains buffalo (Bison bison). (credit: Alan G. Nelson/Root Resources)
For more information on bison, visit Britannica.com.
(buffalo) [Sp]
Wild hump-backed shaggy-haired ox found in North America (Bison bison) and Europe (Bison bonasus). Bison are distinguished by their low horns, rounded forehead, and greater height of the forequarters compared with the hindquarters. They have a large hump on their shoulders and a thick mane covering the back of their heads, neck, and shoulders. Bison roamed the Great Plains of North America and the North European Plain in large herds from Pleistocene times onwards, and were widely hunted by communities who lived almost exclusively from their flesh. In Europe bison were hunted to extinction before Neolithic times and now survive only in parts of Lithuania and the Caucasus. In North America bison were on the verge of extinction by the end of the 19th century ad, although protective legislation since 1910 has allowed their numbers to increase again.
large hoofed mammal, genus Bison, of the cattle family. Bison have short horns and humped, heavily mantled shoulders that slope downward to the hindquarters. The European bison, or wisent, Bison bonasus, has a less luxuriant mane and beard than the American species, B. bison. The American bison is commonly called buffalo, although true buffalo are African and Asian animals of the same family. B. bison is characterized by a huge, low-slung head and massive hump; its legs are shorter than those of the wisent. Males may reach a shoulder height of over 5 ft (1.5 m), a body length of 9 ft (2.7 m), and a weight of 2,500 lb (1,130 kg). The winter coat of the American bison is dark brown and shaggy; it is shed in spring and replaced by a coat of short, light-brown fur. Bison graze on prairie grasses, migrating south in search of food in the winter. They formerly roamed in vast herds over much of North America, especially on the Great Plains, and were hunted by Native Americans for their flesh and hides. With the arrival of European settlers they were subjected to a wholesale slaughter that resulted in their near extinction. They were killed for their tongues, regarded as a delicacy, and shot for sport from trains. At the beginning of the 19th cent. there were over 60 million bison in North America. By the middle of the century the bison was extinct E of the Mississippi, and by 1900 there remained only two wild herds in North America, one of plains bison in Yellowstone Park, and one of the larger variety, called wood bison, in Canada. Protective laws were passed beginning at the end of the last century, and the bison population has since risen from a few hundred to many thousands, although most bison not on federal lands have been hybridized to some degree with domestic cattle. The wood bison may have vanished as a distinct race through hybridization with the plains bison. Bison are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Bovidae.
Bibliography
See T. McHugh and V. Hobson, The Time of the Buffalo (1972); J. N. Mcdonald, North American Bison (1981); V. Geist, Buffalo Nation (1996).
A genus of the family Bovidae. Have massive development of forequarters, covered with shaggy hair and topped by a large hump on the neck.
- B. bison — North American bison, a typical member of the bison group, the coarsest and most hairy of them.
- B. bonasus — the almost extinct European bison, a smaller, less hairy, more graceful version of B. bison.
- This is an article about an animal. For other uses, see Bison (disambiguation).
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 Bison bison or buffalo |
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†B. antiquus |
Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American Bison (B. bison) and the European Bison, or wisent (B. bonasus).
In American Western culture, the bison is commonly referred to as "buffalo"; however, this is a misnomer. Though both bison and buffalo belong to the same family, Bovidae, the term 'buffalo' properly applies only to the Asian Water Buffalo and African Buffalo. The gaur, a large, thick-coated ox found in Asia, is also known as the Indian Bison, although it is in the genus Bos and thus not a true bison.
The American and European bison are the largest terrestrial mammals in North America and Europe. Like their cattle relatives, bison are nomadic grazers and travel in herds, except for the non-dominant bulls, which travel alone or in small groups during most of the year. American bison are known for living in the Great Plains. Both species were hunted close to extinction during the 19th and 20th centuries but have since rebounded, although the European bison is still endangered.
Unlike the Asian Water Buffalo, the bison has never really been domesticated, although it does appear on farms occasionally. It is raised now mostly on large ranches in the United States and Canada for meat. Wild herds are found in Yellowstone, Utah's Antelope Island, South Dakota's Custer State Park, Alaska, and northern central Canada (see Wood Bison).
Bison live to be about 20 years old and are born without their trademark "hump" or horns. With the development of their horns, they become mature at two to three years of age, although the males continue to grow slowly to about age seven. Adult bulls express a high degree of dominance during mating season.
On March 16, 2007, 15 American bison were re-introduced to Colorado to roam where they did over a century ago. A herd of 15 bison has been established in the 17,000-acre (69 km²) Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, a former chemical weapons manufacturing site.
On September 21, 2007, the research co-authored by biologist Dennis Hedgecock of the University of Southern California and Texas A&M University (journal Animal Genetics) found per DNA analysis that the Catalina wild American Bison of Santa Catalina Island, California is not pure bred, having a little bit of cow in them (45% have a domestic cow as an ancestor).[1]
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - bison, bisonokse
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αμερικανικός βίσονας, βόνασος, βουβάλι της Ευρώπης
Português (Portuguese)
n. - bisão (m) (Zool.)
Español (Spanish)
n. - bisonte
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bison(oxe), visent
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
野牛
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 野牛
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) ثور بري
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - תאו, בופאלו, ביזון
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